Belgravia Dispatch is one of the best blogs on foreign policy. Today, BD blogged on Condi. BD took the POV that Condi was a "flawed" NSC chair. BD agreed - basically - with Danner and Cordesman that the shortfalls in Iraq were due to "a flawed interagency process" and that since this is the primary responsibility of the NSC - and since Condi was chair of the NSC - that it was her fault.
This is flat out WRONG.
The reason there were problems in Iraq policy and policy execution is because there were problems within State and the CIA (and to a lesser extent because of lagging problems in the DOD - or should I say "institutional" unhappiness with the solutions to those problems instituted by Rumsfeld at the DOD). Powell never took on the entrenched bureaucrats or the Arabists in the State Department, choosing instead to handle them as he had as CJCS in the Pentagon: by allowing entrenched systems to continue by inertia.
Rumsfeld began the process of overhauling the DOD well before 9/11 - we reaped the rewards AFTER 9/11 - in Afghanistan and in Iraq: two brilliantly waged wars, wars waged AND WON with bold news strategies and tactics - strategies and tactics that were fought tooth & nail by old time Brass. Goss is undertaking a similar - long overdue - house-cleaning at the CIA.
Condi will do the same at State. Where an overhaul is also LONG OVERDUE. And she will succeed. Because Condi is tenacious, brilliant, experienced and knowledgeable about the bureaucracy, and she has the complete confidence of the President.
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